Meh/10 Honestly, everyone gripes about the English speaking Germans, and I am with them. Singer would have done himself a favor and made this film an 8 or 9 out of 10 if he would have had his actors speak German and subtitled the bitch. Not only would it have made it more authentic/real, but it would have made it easier to follow who the fuck is who and what is happening. Everything else was great in terms of authenticity, but to see German writing on the walls, letters/transcripts, and then hearing give Hitler give his speech over the radio in English was just absurd. Also, I didn't really give a damn about any of the guys who were on Cruise's side, including Cruise's character himself. I found myself bored many times and simply not caring about what was happening...most likely due to knowing the outcome (an inherit suspense killer). With a film like this, you need to have characters you truly care about, like Apollo 13... but Singer didn't provide that here.
I agree about the language issue. I got so excited when I heard Cruise speaking German at the beginning of the film -- very good German -- and thought that he might give a German accent a go, but alas, he sounded like the Ohioan he is. With everyone else sounding veddy veddy British, his American accent was incongruous. That being said, I had a much better impression of the film than a lot of people. I found most of the performances very good (Cruise is iffy, admittedly) and the direction favorable for suspense. I knew the fates of all the conspirators, but this wasn't a buzz kill for me because I wanted to see how much the film would stick to history. Except for having Beck shoot himself in the head upon his arrest (he did that while in prison) I thought it followed the events closely. Of course, there was hardly a need to add suspense to something with this much inherent drama.
Yeah it would've been a lot better if they spoke German through the whole thing. Not a bad movie though. 3/5
